Just when you thought the elongated Tottenham Hotspur coaching search couldn’t get any weirder…it turns unintentionally hilarious. Tottenham fired Jose Mourinho on April 19, at a time when the entire football world was focused on the fervor against the proposed and soon dissolved European Super League.
Mourinho got a new job, at AS Roma, where he replaced Paulo Fonseca, who is now the new man in frame to potentially be the next Spurs manager. In fact, he’s the favorite right now, according to the bookies.
Yes, really. And if you are looking to bet on who the next Tottenham boss will be, and need a sports book for placing that wager, you can find some at ukonlinecasinoslist.com. According to Sky Sports Italy the Portuguese (yes, he’s Mourinho’s countryman) “is expected to sign a three-year deal but nothing has been agreed yet between the two parties.”
The last serious candidate for the gig was Antonio Conte, but the talks eventually fell apart, and he walked away. The man Conte succeeded at Chelsea? It was Mourinho. The previous leading candidate linked to the north London club prior to Conte? Mourinho’s predecessor at Spurs, Mauricio Pochettino. Talk about a coaching carousel, although this is one that doesn’t spin very far or very fast.
The world of football managers is often all about the retreads, but this just comes off as the path of least resistance. It’s not right to assume that they’re not looking too hard, but it is certainly how it comes off.
So what does Paulo Fonseca bring to the table? In addition to Roma, he’s been boss at Porto, Braga and Shakhtar Donetsk. It was with the latter that he’s found his greatest career success. The 48-year-old achieved three Ukrainian Premier League titles during his tenure there.
However, his time in Serie A is largely considered to be somewhat of a flop.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.